The Hindu : National : Enough evidence to prove Volcker findings: NRI businessman

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Sunday, Nov 06, 2005

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National

Enough evidence to prove Volcker findings: NRI businessman

Special correspondent

KOZHIKODE: Mr. Haribhajan Singh Mejie, an NRI with business interests in oil, has claimed there is sufficient evidence to prove what the Volcker committee has said about the involvement of Foreign Minister Natwar Singh in the Oil-for-food programme during the Saddam Hussein regime.

Talking to Presspersons in Kozhikode on Saturday, Mr Mejie also claimed that the Volcker Committee’s findings were supported by documents. The relevant documents were with the UN security council and available to all those who wanted to see them.

Mr Mejie also claimed to know that it was with a letter from Congress president Sonia Gandhi that a five-member Indian delegation headed by Mr Natwar Singh met Mr Saddam Hussein. Such a letter from a top leader was necessary to meet the President.

The NRI businessman said it was essentially a goodwill visit. But he also wondered if the occasion was “misused” to sign the controversial oil deal.

He also said there was no truth in the argument that the Volcker committee was a US-sponsored one and added though Mr Paul Volcker was an American, two others on his committee were not.

Mr Mejie is the Chairman of PCP International, a petroleum company in Dubai which supplies oil to companies in India.

Volcker Committee had also visited his company as part of its investigation. He had been in Kottakkal for ayurvedic treatment and was at the Railway Station in Kozhikode on Saturday to board a train to Delhi when he talked to Presspersons.

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